The Key’s Under the Mat: Mike Hewson Transforms AGNSW Tank

Sydney-based artist Mike Hewson will transform the renowned Nelson Packer Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales into a wildly inventive art park in a new installation, Mike Hewson: The Key’s Under the Mat, opening on 4 October.

The first solo art museum presentation by the acclaimed New Zealand-born artist, sculptor and playground-maker, The Key’s Under the Mat converts the Tank into a combined park, play space, construction site and commons – an anarchic and generous sculptural neighbourhood where visitors can meet, dwell, play, make, perform and explore.

Developed across 14 months in the artist’s Sydney studio and constructed from thousands of salvaged objects and materials, The Key’s Under the Mat is an experiment in participation, a spirited act of reclamation and regeneration, a radical rework of the legacies of modern sculpture, and a provocation about new ways of being in an art museum. Hewson invites guests to use the artwork as their own – “the key’s under the mat, make yourself at home”.

The Key’s Under the Mat is the latest in a series of groundbreaking commissions created specifically for the Tank, which began with Adrián Villar Rojas’ The End of Imagination (2022), Angelica Mesiti’s The Rites of When (2024) and Yalu (2025), the immersive installation by The Mulka Project presented in conjunction with Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala.

“Mike Hewson is a disruptor, continually testing the edges of possibility and reimagining the Art Gallery as a site where boundaries dissolve and where art can unfold in ways once thought impossible in an art museum,” said Maud Page, director of Art Gallery of New South Wales.

“We have embraced his vision without hesitation and are sure visitors of all ages will too.”

Entering the Tank through some of Hewson’s trademark palm trees, visitors will encounter dozens of useable sculptures and spaces, which combine to make what exhibition curator and AGNSW head curator of international art Justin Paton calls “a handmade utopia rich with surprises” – a public park that buzzes with material energy and a mix of multigenerational activities.

At the centre of the park is Road plate public barbecue 2024–25, created from a huge steel road plate and five public-barbecue grills with an exhaust system made from a repurposed grain bin. Bringing the capacity to cook and share communal meals into the heart of the Art Gallery, this work exemplifies Hewson’s idea of the artist as a host who “sets the stage” for others.

Among the unique social sculptures available for visitors to use are Site-shed sauna 2025, a 1980s ATCO site shed exquisitely refurbished as a functioning sauna with bespoke pews, stained glass and reclaimed travertine flooring from the Art Gallery; and Milk-vat steam tank 2025, a disused steel milk vat found in Port Fairy, Victoria, transformed into a sculptural steam-room with a doorway, stained glass, travertine seating and a steam generator.

Hewson’s park also includes free spaces for music, art-making and community use. These include Green sound box 2025, a shed engineered as a fully equipped recording studio – its walls insulated with repurposed items, including the artist’s own paintings. Underneath Green sound box sits Bobby’s container, an open-use exhibition space inaugurated with an exhibition of playground concept drawings by children.

Renowned for the public play spaces he has created in Sydney and Melbourne, Hewson has also built a new playground for his park, centred on monkey bars that loop in a figure-8 through the Tank’s concrete columns. His interest in creating spaces where children can embrace risk and test themselves is also apparent in Tiny wide slide stack 2024, in which a pink slide is reached by climbing a structure assembled from wooden pallets, sandstone fragments, plastic buckets and heritage steelwork. Adventurous children will be protected by Soft-fall pavers 2025, reusable custom-made flooring made from recycled rubber and rated for public playgrounds.

Among the most ambitious sculptures in Hewson’s project is the raised floor, paved almost entirely (approx. 1800 sqm) with an ever-changing pattern of reclaimed materials that have their own local histories. As well as permitting an ingenious system of underfloor plumbing and wiring, Hewson describes this floor as key to creating an exhibition that feels grounded and welcoming – “a place where anyone can find their place”.

The recycled materials carry histories of local life, work and architecture – including blistered bricks from the Corrimal Coke Works, column fragments from a decommissioned fuel tank that once stood to the north of the Tank, industrial bulk fluid containers repurposed as lights, and a colourful array of towels from the 1970s and 1980s.

“This is the first time the Tank will have been revealed in full light, and the materials I’m using respond directly to its amazing textures and colours,” said Hewson.

“Everyone working on the project knows how special it is to spend time with all these beautiful materials and make them into a place for people. I hope visitors to the park feel like they’re discovering something that’s already theirs. The sculptures are there to seed a sense of possibility. This thing needs to grow!”

“Mike’s project is like none I’ve encountered,” remarked exhibition curator, Justin Paton.

“I can’t wait for people to descend the Tank stairs and discover it for themselves. The big picture is remarkable – this multifarious, wall-to-wall art park. Then there’s the puzzlement and pleasure of discovering that these sculpturally rich forms are also functional. I especially love the grace notes and loving touches – the moments of humour and unexpected ornament. Hewson’s high-energy project extends the history of assemblage art and a contemporary tradition of experimental park- and playground-making. When The Key’s Under the Mat opens, things are only beginning – because that’s when visitors of all ages get to come in and reveal what the space can be. The artist leaves the key under the mat, and now it’s up to us to unlock the possibilities.”

Hewson (Aotearoa New Zealand, b. 1985) has a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Columbia University, New York (2016), and a background in structural engineering and heavy-civil construction. The experience of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake catalysed his shift towards creating art in public space. He is acclaimed for public art commissions including Rocks on wheels, Southbank, Melbourne (2022); Pockets park, Leichhardt, Sydney (2022); and St Peters fences, St Peters, Sydney (2020).

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication ($29.95) documenting the dynamic process of realising The Key’s Under the Mat, featuring behind-the-scenes photography, new writing from curator Justin Paton and assistant curator Emily Sullivan, and contributions from Agatha Gothe-Snape, Guillermo Fernàndez Abascal, Megan Dunn, Ryan Brown and Liam Gillick.

Mike Hewson: The Key’s Under the Mat will be presented at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 4 October 2025. Entry is free.

More information: artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/mike-hewson